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Yes, We Climb Mountains – Stephen DeBerry | BMe UNLIMITED

“The Naysayers are wrong.” In this compelling talk, Stephen DeBerry reminds us that you can do ANYTHING – even climb a mountain. On Expedition Denali, Stephen was a member of the first all African American team of mountaineers to conquer Denali, the highest mountain in North America. He challenges us to defy the cynics, and fervently pursue our passion. Named one of the 100 Most Powerful African Americans in the US by Ebony Magazine, Stephen DeBerry is a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute and member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Get ready to take a journey to the top! Be sure to share.

Black Men Social Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Leaders: $10,000 grant

BMe Community | Call for Stories 2018

Program Outline

BMe Community is currently accepting applications of black men who are social entrepreneurs, innovators and difference-makers in greater Akron, Louisville, Miami, or Pittsburgh. Top applicants will receive national recognition as BMe Leaders, a $10,000 grant, local recognition and travel to Washington DC to be inducted into a lifelong fellowship of their peers.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

Tell us your story of a personal challenge you’ve overcame, a moment that changed everything, or what deeply motivates you to do remarkable things for your community. BMe will score candidates on the remarkability of their stories, authenticity, willingness to work with others, community engagement, and diversity of age and fields. BMe is especially interested in those who work to improve health, wealth, know-how and community.

There are over 190 BMe Leaders including men like:

Akron BMe Leader Denny Wilson whose faith led him to become a source of hope and help by founding FI Community Housing to house and serve men and women newly freed from prison. It is now Ohio’s largest peer oriented and operated drug recovery community organization. http://www.ficommunityhousing.org/

Miami BMe Leader Derick Pearson who co-founded BlackTech Weekend with his wife Felecia Hatcher to increase the number of startup founders, technology executives and engineers of color. Both are venture-backed entrepreneurs themselves. http://blacktechweek.com/

How One Amateur Historian Brought Us the Stories of African-Americans Who Knew Abraham Lincoln

The memoir of Elizabeth Keckly, a formerly enslaved woman who became a dressmaker to First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, struck a nerve when it was published in 1868. Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House was an unprecedented look at the Lincolns’ lives in the White House, but reviewers widely condemned its author for divulging personal aspects of their story, particularly the fragile emotional state of Mary Lincoln after her husband’s murder.

For decades after its publication, the book was difficult to find, and Keckly lived in relative obscurity. In black Washington, however, many African-Americans personally knew and admired her, and remained a beloved figure.

When journalist and Democratic political operative David Rankin Barbee claimed in 1935 that Keckly had not written the book and, remarkably, had never existed, one determined Washingtonian, an African-American high school teacher named John E. Washington, felt compelled to speak up. The encounter with Barbee about Keckly and Behind the Scenes changed Washington’s life and led him to write a remarkable book of his own—They Knew Lincoln.

Part memoir, part history, part argument for the historical significance of common people, They Knew Lincoln was the first book to focus exclusively on Lincoln’s relationship to African-Americans. They Knew Lincoln not only affirmed the existence of Keckly, but revealed that African-Americans, from the obscure folk preacher known as Uncle Ben to the much more prominent Keckly, had shaped Lincoln’s life, and it insisted that their stories were worth knowing.